Toxic. {manxman}

Epilogue.

"How come I don't see Mr. Niko anymore, daddy?"

I clenched my eyes shut and forced the tears not to come out. It took all the willpower I had in me to look at him with clear eyes.

"I don't know, Eli. I don't know." I whispered sadly and looked away. I could see him from the corner of my eye, scrunching up his face. It was unusual for me to call him Eli. I usually called him a bunch of insults. "Daddy, are you okay?"

I let out a small sigh as I clenched my fists together. "I-I'm fine, Eli. Please leave me alone for a minute." I managed to get through a cracked voice.

"Yeah, dad." He stood in the doorway of my room for a minute before he departed silently. I knew he had pending questions but I had no way of answering them. I hadn't had the answers for anything ever since it all went down.

It was terrifyingly and painfully sad how minutes were able to turn into hours and then turned into days and into two weeks with the span of time. It was so heartbreaking and each day tore me to pieces without him by my side.

After he walked out, he blocked my calls and my texts and he even turned over my case to someone else. After the charges were finalized, I was on my own. Zanos and Alejandro tried comforting me, but I could tell that Alejandro was off about it. Zanos understood where I was coming from because he was my best friend and he knew that part of me. Alejandro didn't.

He wouldn't talk to me.

Is this how Kary felt when I left her? Did she feel this tantalizing pain ripping through her chest like a never-ending dream? My heart burned everyday and my very existence yearned to be in the arms of Nikolai.

I love Nikolai.

It pained me yet excited me to my core with how much I came to that realization. I loved that man so much, I would walk on the hottest coals for him if he asked me. That's how much I loved him and I couldn't do anything about it.

"Ugh." I wiped a tear I didn't know fell. Why am I like this?

There was no time to dwell on the past and cry about what could have been. I was required to be at the court house in an hour for the trial of Kary. They had wanted me to testify against her and I had no problem with that.

Eli was at Alessandro's house for the time-being. Mary had known way too well of the pain that I was going through and she offered to watch him for me. I was a little wary considering the reason why I was going to court in the first place but she eased my fears.

Something about the treatment of heartbreak.

Whatever.

I got up and took a quick shower, putting on a black slacks, a blue button down shirt with some dress shoes and fixed my hair. My eyes were still slightly puffy and red but I wasn't going there to impress anyone.

Well, off I go.

-

"Mr. Kaylor, can you tell me what year you first met Kary and how she seemed to you then?" The prosecutor came up to me as I swore on an oath on the Bible.

"I met her in 2006. She was the one who came up to me in the hallway. She seemed like she was very smart, had her head on right and she was nice. She was the prettiest thing I saw that day." I smirked, trying to dispel how weird I felt.

"Why did you guys break up?" They fired another question and I raised a brow. "We broke up because we had a kid in this world and she told me to take care of him while she got herself together. Then, she told me she didn't want to see me anymore because of some complications in her life so I did what she told me." I stated, taking a look at Kary's face.